Q&A: Chris Isaak's got that old time rock ’n’ roll

Friday

Jun 22, 2012 at 12:01 AMJun 22, 2012 at 10:12 PM

Chris Isaak might still be best known for his early ’90s hit “Wicked Game,” and the sexy black-and-white video that helped make him an MTV and VH1 sensation at the time. But anyone who’s delved deeper into Isaak’s albums — including the multi-platinum “Heart Shaped World” and its follow-ups, “San Francisco Days” and “Forever Blue” — knows of his appreciation for the sound and feel of 1950s-style rock ’n’ roll.

Peter Chianca / pchianca@wickedlocal.com

Chris Isaak might still be best known for his early ’90s hit “Wicked Game,” and the sexy black-and-white video that helped make him an MTV and VH1 sensation at the time. But anyone who’s delved deeper into Isaak’s albums — including the multi-platinum “Heart Shaped World” and its follow-ups, “San Francisco Days” and “Forever Blue” — knows of his appreciation for the sound and feel of 1950s-style rock ’n’ roll.

Last year, Isaak released “Beyond the Sun,” a tribute to the artists, like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash, who got their start at Memphis’ legendary Sun Studio — and he even recorded it in the same studio where his idols once stood.

“It was probably one of the most — not probably, the most fun I ever had in the studio, going in that room,” Isaak said. “We were so prepared.”

Taking time out from his ongoing world tour, Isaak talked about “Beyond the Sun,” songwriting and the value of a good rock ’n’ roll band.

Your music has always owed a lot to the original rock and roll of the ’50s and ’60s, but this is the first time you’ve recorded an album of some of those old songs. What motivated you – why now, at this stage of your career?

You know, there are certain albums you can’t start your career with … When I started off I made an effort to make sure people knew I was writing my own material and I was trying to get my own sound … And so when I came out at first, I would not do an Elvis song onstage. Because I wanted to make sure I found out exactly what it is I do — I wanted to find my own thing.

But at this point I’ve made enough records, people know what I sound like, and I just love that music so much, I love singing it, and I play it around the house and stuff … I thought, I want to make this record. We’d be playing at soundcheck and I’d go, “We should make a record of this, because we love this kind of music.” And one day we just said, let’s go do it.

How did you go about choosing the songs you covered?

I wish I could say it was some kind of clever marketing idea [laughs] … I made a list of 150 songs I wanted to sing in that room, and my manager was going nuts. He was like, “Chris, you have to limit the songs down to a certain amount.”

So we just went in and we just picked the songs that I like to sing, and that to me is the best way to do it. And then we cut ’em, and we ended up cutting I think 38 songs, something like that — that’s a ton of songs.

It was terrifying for the band at first … I said there’s not going to be any overdubs, so if you screw up your guitar solo or something that’s OK, but if it’s on a track where I’m singing good, I’m gonna pick the track where I sing good!

What did you learn about them in the process of recording these songs? Were there elements that surprised you even though you’d heard them so many times?

Yeah I did. You know something, if you were to ask me what thing in life do I know better than everybody else, I would have said, “Music from Sun Studio.” That’s my thing. If there was something to read, or if there’s song that came out of there I really listened to it — I mean a lot. Some people can tell you who batted third in the World Series in 1950 — I’m that way with Sun.

[But] when we made this record, here’s the weird little things you learn. Number one: They didn’t have a rock beat. It was called rock ’n’ roll when it came out of there, but it’s not what anybody today calls a rock ’n’ roll beat. They don’t have a straight beat, they have all shuffle beats. Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh …

And the other thing they have is a strip beat. Ta-ta-tata-ta-ta-ta … You know, Chuck Berry has a straight beat. He’s not a Sun guy — he had that four on the floor kind of beat. But not out of Sun.

There’s an original song called “Live It Up” that fits in really well with the classics on the album — was the idea to write a song that sounded authentically of that era?

I did, I wanted to write something that would blend in with everything else. I’m always happy if I can write something made to order, because writing is such an abstract thing. Usually it just comes to you, and it’s not like you can go, “I want a vanilla cake.” “Nope you got chocolate.” “But I needed vanilla.” “Too bad — that’s what the writing princess gave ya.”

So I went to bed, I’d been working all the time on this record, and I’m thinking, I’ve got all these shuffle tunes, I need a straight beat. And when I woke up in the morning I was half asleep and I started singing, [sings] “Well you can live it up, love it up, but I won't ever give you up, and if you ever leave me, baby I won't care if you go.” And I went, hey, that’s a good song! What song is that? Because how would I know all the lyrics to this thing — it’s got to be somebody else’s song because I woke up singing it.

When we got the album done the first people we sent a copy to were Jerry Lee Lewis and [Elvis’ guitarist] Scotty Moore. And Scotty wrote back, he said, “I didn’t know they were still making good music! And I love the song ‘Live It Up,’ but who did that song? I don’t know who did it.” So I was happy.

You recently filmed a special for PBS — how did that come about?

You know, they asked us if we’d be interested in doing it, and it’s a ball whenever somebody lets you play a whole set — a whole set with the band is so much more fun than just getting on and singing one song. You really have time to fool around a little bit, and I’m dying to let people see what that band sounds like and what they do live. Because they’re a great live band – and I know probably everybody thinks their band is great live, but I just think they’re from a different world of show business. They really put on a good show in a different way.

If you were to see a show in 1958 or something, people would probably have been doing that kind of a show. Today people say, “I went to the show, it was great, the Titanic came out in the middle of the thing, they had 200 dancers …” It’s more like Broadway and less like rock ’n’ roll. And I’m really proud that our band has a lot of rock n roll to it.

The stuff that we bring on stage is so not Broadway — we dress like James Brown’s Famous Flames or something, or we look like the clothes that Liberace threw away. I’ve got like a 35-pound mirrored suit that I wear out on stage. So we put on a big show, but it’s all based on rock n roll.

We’ve had the same guys 27 years — Rowland [Salley] and Kenney [Dale], the bass player and the drummer, we were on the bus and one day the bass player starts telling a story and saying, “Yeah, and then the girl started laughing really hard,” and my drummer starts looking at the bass player and says, “Hey, that’s not your story, that’s my story! That happened to me!” And the bass player looks at him shocked, and he goes, “Really? Are you sure?” And I said, “Guys, you guys gotta get out separate more.”

Because when you’ve traveled together so long you start to go, I don’t know where your life ends and mine begins. The good thing is that apparently the bass player is still paying the alimony for the drummer, so he’s happy about that.

One final bonus question: Do you still have the pompadour?

[Laughs] God’s been very good to me — I haven’t changed much, I don’t think! On my [Showtime] TV show I always played like a Jack Benny, I was tight with a dime, and it’s kind of based on reality. So people say, “You look like you’re in a good shape” and I go, “You know, I don’t want to have to buy a new costume.”